‘How can BMC waive 50% public road charges for Taj hotel?’

Corporators and activists slammed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) administration for giving around 50% waiver in charges to Hotel Taj Mahal Palace,

Corporators and activists slammed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) administration for giving around 50% waiver in charges to Hotel Taj Mahal Palace, Colaba, for using the public road outside the hotel for parking and barricading certain portions of the road citing security requirements.

HT Image

The hotel near Gateway of India had started barricading a portion of the road and footpath for security reasons after the terrorist attacks in November 2008.

For the usage, the charge is over Rs 9 crore but the civic body has waived 50% for the hotel to around Rs 4.62 crore.

Hotel Taj Mahal Palace did not respond to queries emailed by Hindustan Times.

However, the BMC administration has stated that the waiver is subject to approval from BMC’s standing committee, “The waiver has been offered to Hotel Taj on condition of getting approval from standing committee of BMC. If the committee doesn’t approve, the actual cost will be recovered,” said a BMC official.

Ravi Raja, leader of Opposition and Congress corporator said, “How can the BMC waive the charges for Taj Mahal Hotel? This is favouring them at the cost of public money. There should be an inquiry by the anti-corruption bureau into the same.”

“Out of the 50% amount too, the hotel has paid only Rs 62 lakh. What about the remaining amount? The BMC could not give me a proper reply on the same,” he added.

Lalit Jain, an activist from Colaba, said, “BMC can frame policy and give permissions for enclosing public roads or footpaths, but it cannot give waiver for no reason.”

BMC is also drafting a policy wherein private entities which enclose footpaths or parts of public roads citing security reasons, will be allowed to do so only if the threat perception is acknowledged by the police.

BMC corporators also slammed the administration on Friday for delaying road repair works. Tenders for a major part of the repair works, whose estimated value is around Rs 600 crore, are yet to be awarded to contractors, as the civic body had not mentioned its newly-introduced 60-40 payment plan in previous tenders floated.

Replying to corporators’ concerns, additional municipal commissioner Vijay Singhal said, “Not all road repair works have been stalled. The spillover works of last year have been continued and several other road repair works have also been started.”